OVERNIGHT. Jazz.

Hendricks' Vocalese Art A Lively One

February 19, 1993|By Howard Reich, Arts critic.

Though Jon Hendricks' reputation precedes him, the ensemble he brought to the Jazz Showcase on Wednesday night proved that the art of vocalese is alive and flourishing, at least wherever Hendricks & Co. are performing.

To jazz aficionados, Hendricks has been something of an institution for decades-both as a member of the fabled Lambert, Hendricks and Ross vocal group and as a soloist touring on his own.

In each setting, Hendricks has startled listeners with the virtuosity and ease of his singing.

At the center of his art is vocalese, a form of jazz singing that amounts to the inverse of scat. In other words, where scat singers embellish a tune with flurries of notes, vocalese artists typically add words to already familiar instrumental improvisations.

No one practicing the art today does so as fluently or musically as Hendricks, who can fire off a Charlie Parker solo nearly as fluidly as the great altoist did himself-but with the added challenge of articulating lyrics.

The real wonder, though, is that Hendricks has built a vocal ensemble that can perform in unison with nearly unerring precision and accuracy. To hear these four singers throw off music by Parker, Ellington, Horace Silver and the like was to marvel anew at the flexibility of the human voice.

In music from the "Charlie Parker With Strings" album, for instance, Hendricks handled Parker's solos with grace and gentility, shaping these ornate phrases as knowingly as if he had composed them himself.

His three singing colleagues, meanwhile, blended discreetly in suggesting the accompanying string section. With Judith Hendricks, Jon's wife, singing soprano; Aria Hendricks, their gifted daughter, as alto; and Kevin Fitzgerald Burke as baritone, the trio created a soft but unmistakable counterpoint to the solo line.

The group closed the set exuberantly, with a hard-charging version of the Benny Goodman Band's classic "Sing, Sing, Sing," accompanied by a soft-spoken rhythm section.

Though this was a one-night engagement at the Showcase, the ensemble will play Pick-Staiger Concert Hall in Evanston on Feb. 27.